Off to Valentia Island for the weekend

In the name of research for upcoming visitors we embarked on a holiday within a holiday when we went for the weekend around to the Iveragh Peninsula and in particular Valentia Island. http://www.valentiaisland.ie/
It's worth noting here that when the spell checker could not find the word Iveragh in the dictionary it offered Rivera instead, appropriate I'd say.

It is possible to scoot around this headland in a day, long drive but doable. However we wanted a leisurely drive, take in the scenery and make sure we spotted all the great places to tell you about.

And its a lovely place to visit, people were really nice, on the island itself it was very quiet and

tranquil with few cars on the road.
We stayed in Knightstown which is most famous for being one end of the first cable to connect Europe and North America.
Our accommodation for the night was at the Royal Valentia Hotel, named after one of the Royal family who stayed there: http://royalvalentia.ie/ Nice bunch of folk.

The island is accessible by either a bridge or a tiny ferry - I'd recommend the ferry.
One highlight was going to the top of the highest mountain on the island, accessed initially by car and then a walk. Amazing views over to the Skelligs, down along the coast and back across the headlands.
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The next morning we headed back along the bottom of the island stopping off at the viewing point called the Kerry Cliffs. Basically, whilst being a formal tourist attraction on the Wild Atlantic Way, it is essentially the enterprise of one farmer who ploughed his field and laid a path, to allow people to walk across it. Once over the fields you are at the edge of cliffs that are about 1,000ft high and brilliant. There are fences but not of the standard/quality/height you might see in a country that's hyper about safety.
It's hard for a camera on a Samsung phone to do it justice, so you'll just have to visit in person.
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Back home stopping off in Killarney. To be avoided unless you want to buy any of the following: t-shirt with a leprechaun on it, a hat with a leprechaun on it, a bag with a leprechaun on it or a top with a phrase "my Mum went to Ireland & all she brought me back was a leprechaun". You get the drift.

We did however pop into the golf club as yer man wanted new golf socks. In the pro shop we overheard a conversation...
Man of an age over 60 says "did you hear that Jimmy in the butchers has got married"
Woman of an age over 60 says "What!, Jimmy, our Jimmy?"
Man replies "Yes our Jimmy".
Woman replies, "God I didn't think he had it in him"
Man replies "Married a Filipino"
Woman who stares, take a deep breath and say "What, Jimmy? Jimmy's married a Filipino"?

Hard to know what else to say to that.
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Star Wars in Ballyferriter

Anyone for tea - only in Ireland

Green Street in Dingle

View from sun lounge of Mount Brandon

Just in case you need to talk to God 

Only in Ireland

Ten Days of Easter

A four hour trip from Dublin had herself pulling onto the driveway of Carrigeen on the Tuesday before Easter. A full 72 hours before himself flew in from Stansted. I was taking a short break from unloading the car when a knock on the kitchen door from Eamon who would turn out to be my new best friend. Hi says Eamon, I used to cut the grass her for Mrs Gould and generally keep the garden tidy. Now I don't know if you are a gardener yourself says Eamon (clearly not knowing me) but if you did need any help I might be the man for you". Well says I, you are the man for me, how can we agree to make this happen. I know friends say I am a fast worker and I suppose this proves the point, but by 4pm he was cutting the grass and clearing the borders.

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It's hard to describe how brilliant the weather has been, 10 straight days and no rain = unheard of in Kerry. But we can testify that it does happen. On the left is a view of the next village along called Ballydavid.
In Irish the meaning of the name is town of foreigners which is interesting because it's mainly locals who live there.  There are two bars/pubs both with excellent reputations and one with views over the harbour and bay although Tigh TP's is probably the best known: https://www.facebook.com/Tigh-TP-Baile-na-nGall-354669563727/
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Good Friday in Ireland is one of two "odd" days in the year in Ireland in that unless you are a private members club, or serving food you cannot sell alcohol.
In supermarkets the easiest way to stop the sale of drink is to cordon off the section. Now most "ordinary" supermarkets would put string across or barriers but oh not no in the wonderful Supervalu in Dingle. They build a wall of toilet rolls and kitchen rolls to prevent access & of course offer for sale these items if one is in need of either.

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All was well with the world by Easter Saturday and a lovely birthday was had for TS in the Blue Zone pizza restaurant in Dingle. Sunday saw the arrival of our first formal guests, ie they are staying longer than one night. MC & JC arrived from Dublin and after a quick tour of the house and a bite to eat we headed for one of the four pubs in Ballyferriter.
Our aim was to arrive in time to hear Mike and his ensemble play a few tunes whilst having a few drinks but it turned out we  missed them by about 1/2 hour.
So we headed to check out the next pub which was full so onto the third pub, Sayers where we found seats and settled in. We had only taken one sip from our drinks when up popped some young musicians. When I say young I mean young, the eldest being 15 and the youngest of the four was we later found out 12. For the next two hours we were treated to the most wonderful Irish music by the four lads. Their rewards each hour was 2L of 7Up + 4 packets of Tayto crisps.
We did laugh thinking this just would never happen in England, someone would be worried about the child protection squad etc.
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The following day we took our visitors on a tour of the peninsula and showing them the sights. It was a long day and by 9pm only half the group were keen on the pub. Thankfully that was the more dominate half because 10 minutes later we are settled again in Sears. And preceded to contribute to the week's spend in the bar just on that one night or at least that's what it felt like the following morning. We are now on first name terms with the barman and it's a super place to spend a few hours. http://www.searspub.com/

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Easter Saturday - Dingle

A brilliant, sunny start to the day - although the rest of the day promises to be cloudy and dull - and it feel like Spring is truly established.

We went out at 4.00pm yesterday and managed nine holes of golf and took the first step to getting official handicaps at what is (now) our local golf club. It was what is known as a "soft day" that is to say no rain but a fine mist in the air, that feels quite a lot like rain to me. The plan is to play again today but the course is very busy (holiday makers) and we might struggle.

Yesterday, Peter's first task was to put up the bathroom cabinets that were first got from Ikea for Park Road , moved to The Knoll and used until about 10 years ago when the bathroom was refurbished. We stored them in the garage and moved them to Dublin, thinking we'd use them in the flat. But then we decided to refurbish the bathroom there and didn't use them.

So on to Ballyferriter and one in the shower room and one in the bathroom. Now that is what I call recycling! Hope they don't fall off the  walls.

When putting marginal plants in water on a 2nd floor balcony do not buy pots with holes.

And thus begins our lesson for Sunday. Our balcony is small, bland and a little boring. One end of the balcony is long and narrow and so near the next apartment it would be possible to being a physical relationship with the owner. Whereas the other end is nice and wide and a good space. So how to take away the bland feel was the challenge of the weekend.

It had begun on a previous trip, a strip of artificial grass covered up the long, narrow strip and rustic floor boards covered up the wider bit, creating a space that Monty Don would be proud of.

A trip down to Johnstown Garden Centre with the aim of buying four or five pots into which we’d put marginals. Marginals for those of you unfamiliar with pond plants are plants that side at the edge of ponds. Now whilst we were not creating a pond what we thought we’d do is put the plants in pots of water on the balcony and thus remove the need for watering. Which is just as well since we are not here to water them. 

Within ½ hour we were heading home with pots and plants and making great progress. Only to discover upon filling the first pot with water that it was not designed to be water tight. So back into the car and a quick trip to the local Homebase to buy pots to fit inside the pots that were water tight.

Tomorrow I head to Ballyferriter. 

A weekend in Dublin

Sunday evening and I am back at the flat having just dropped himself off at Dublin airport. It has been a lovely weekend, albeit less than 48 hours for yer man, but the start of 30 days in Ireland for me. The trip is tinged with sadness in that we can have this extended break in Dublin because there’s no one waiting at home in Beckenham for us now that Mum has gone.

When we started the blog it was to keep both Mary T and Mum up to date and share experience with them Now with both gone I am keeping writing knowing that they will be reading it somewhere looking down on us.

I know that Mum would certainly have had a laugh when I told her about going to Smyths Toy Superstore in Tallaght to buy Evelyn’s 4^th birthday present. Tallaght for those that are not familiar with was a new town built in the 1970’s by a blind & deaf town planner who did not realise that people might actually live in the houses, need shops, schools and public transport links. Now nearly 50 years later they have some form of all but the dreadful town planning left its mark and even the dogs walk in pairs for safety. I had just got out of the car when I am accosted by a woman with a very strong Dublin accent asking me “are you Irish love”, yes I say “well she says you’d want to see the state of the ones that just got on that bus”. Off to a stag weekend in Kilkenny and dressed like lamps to the slaughter.

Anyway moving quickly on as I established that even though it was only 2pm she’d definitely been in the pub. I am looking for a Lego set from which you would build a Vet practise. Not sure when you last bought a Lego set but it has changed beyond recognition with two large isles of choice but no vet practice kit. It was incredibly hard to find a kit that did not involve a woman/girl in pink, a boy in blue and normally the male doing the lead role. However I felt I struck lucky when I found a kit which featured a girl driving a speed boat and her mate running the bar on the beach!  I thought how ingenious of Lego to build a kit based on Mary C and myself!

The present was well received and a good time was had by all.

On Saturday in Dublin I lost my Mc..

...and gained  some new friends.
We came over to Dublin to attend the launch the of the centenary celebrations of Templogue Tennis Club. I was a bit surprised to be greeted on arrival by the President of the club with "hello you must be Peter Kay, Sheila's husband" which was so welcoming that I thought it a little rude to correct her. On going to our designated table I saw that I was on the table plan as "Peter Kay"

Welcome to Templogue Tennis Club

As the evening progressed I was overwhelmed by countless friendly approaches and made to feel very welcome by Eddie, Tony, Johnny, Damien, Dorothy, Sherri, to name but a few. I started to wonder if they all thought the wonderful northern comedian Peter Kay had turned up, but since no one asked me to do a turn or tell a joke, I reckon it was just an expression of their welcoming approach.

The evening began with a very creditable performance by the Templogue Tennis Centenary Choir and proceed with a pretty decent meal and concluded with a couple of hours of dancing. The whole event was a great success and I can see the why the club attracted around 150 folk for the celebratory launch.

Sunday morning and a trip to Greystones

On the coast, south of Dublin city centre, and no more than a 25 minutes drive from Charleville Square is Greystones. This was my first visit and it is smashing and I can see it becoming a regular trip out. 

We pottered around enjoying the winter sunshine and views across the bay. Sheila tells me that it has a population of 17k. Hard to believe as you wander about the place but probably explains how a good number of trendy shops, cafes, coffee shops and the wonderful Happy Pear, all prosper. 

We scooped up some food for lunch from The Happy Pear and returned to CS via Bray. In stark contrast to Greystones, Bray looks rather down at heel and struggling. 

Flight back to Gatwick later this afternoon so that is all for now.

We have been in Ireland for two years...

...that is to say the last fours days of 2016 and the first eight days of 2017.

As Sheila reports...
And so, like all good things, it’s the end of our New Year break here in Ireland and as if it knows we are leaving, the sunny weather has gone. We are shrouded in extremely low cloud with little or no visibility and it feels like weather is hiding the magnificent scenery from us so we are not sad leaving.

Today (Friday) is a tidy and clean-up day which includes a trip to the dump recycle centre – I will be adding that onto the must do section of the travel tips for Dingle. As well as the dump trip I’ll be doing washing and ironing and clearing up after last night’s dinner party… yes only a wet week in the place and we managed to find three people to join us for dinner.

Camilla and Mike, owners of The Dingle Bookshop, and wonderfully lovely people, who along with another friend, AM experienced Peter’s version of Chicken Parmentier. We’d seen it on the Rick Stein Long Weekend (in Bordeaux) programme and thought it looks great and sure enough it turned out to be a bit of a winner – well they all ate it. Lovely evening some great chat although one slightly worrying part was how we spent over an hour talking about the Catholic Church in the UK!

Our week’s trial of working from home went reasonably well. Of the four days we had three very productive days and then Friday; the low cloud proved too much of a challenge for the satellite broadband so that we had no internet.  Himself felt adrift without the access to the wide, wide world and his office files.

We’ve joined Ceann Sibeal Golf Club, as beginners which we are of course. No playing in just paying the fee and Steve, the office manager says to use “sure off you go, you’ll be fine”.

Roll on Easter.

Peter adds...
Back in Dublin for Saturday night before flying back to Gatwick and on home on Sunday afternoon.. We treated ourselves a meal at Enigma in Rathfarnham village - just 1km from the front door. It was a mild evening so we strolled there and back and well satisifed that such a decent restaurant is so handy.

Just one of the many benefits of being in the EU, I am sure!

New Year Weekend on the Edge of Europe but still in Europe

As we’ve done for the past few years it was our plan to spend New Year on the Dingle peninsula only this time in our own place, how exciting. Packing the car on Friday morning took an hour… what do we have to take you might ask, we asked that ourselves because there was so much we could not see out the back window of the SUV.

We arrived in Adare, just two hours from Dublin at 11am and were shocked to find that our normal stopping off bar, in the Dunraven Arms doesn’t open until noon. The upside is that we had a super breakfast, albeit unbelievably healthy across the road in The Good Room. We’d normally have a classic Irish lunch of soup and toasted sandwiches.

Arriving in Ballyferriter mid-afternoon and in time to see a wonderful sunset. We’ve found out that Dingle is 44 minutes behind GMT, makes an interesting difference in the mornings when it’s dark until about 8.45am but longer evening. An evening meal with friends celebrating her son’s engagement was a lovely way to end the week.

Up bright and early, although some people don’t call 9am early to discover that himself has a dreadful cold, a real McKay cold so he does very little for the day in an attempt to be able to stay awake for midnight. Whereas I take up an opportunity to use my Christmas present and head out n the golf course with some friends. We play 9 holes and it’s hugely enjoyable.

New Year is rung in at The Bothar pub http://www.botharpub.com/ with a few people known for singing and having a good time.

By New Year Day’s its evident that despite my best efforts to avoid the McKay cold I have caught it. However, it is an glorious day albeit -6degrees. We head for a walk on the beach nearest to us, Beal Ban. It’s impossible to describe how cold it was so you can imagine our surprise when we saw two people going for a swim. To be fair though the man ran out of the sand dunes to the waters edges, paddled in for oh all of 3 seconds before running back up the beach to get dressed. Whereas the woman, got down into the water. Does this make women hardier or madder creatures I wonder?

It’s still a slightly surreal situation here, on one hand it feels very like Marsilly, the house is similar, we have the same furniture but then you look out the window and the scene is dramatically different. We step outside the door and we can talk to everyone, well most of the people.

And we’ve joined the golf club. Due to the colds we decided not to play in the captains play in, but we dropped by to get our applications forms filled in and say hi to the few people we know there, including our neighbour. Maireada. She also happens to the President, so handy person to keep in with.

All in all a brilliant start to the year and we are here for the week, “working from home”. During my lunch hour I popped into Dingle and decided because the weather was so good to take the drive back along the Slea Head Drive and this is the view. 

Dublin and Dingle 2016

Its Tuesday 27^th December and having had a lovely Christmas we head for Ireland and a two-centred holiday. Gatwick is eerily quiet, as is the flight and Dublin airport. Apparently, according to the Eurocar rental bus driver it was “bedlam in Dublin Airport the previous day”. Peter, being the chatty person that he is, asks the driver so was the people coming or going? Ah no says the driver, that was people leaving and arriving… we put it down to a misunderstanding of accents, Peter’s that is.

Yet again we had another “little incident” with car hire. This one did not involve hitting a wall or barrier in the airport but rather a mistake in the booking. Himself takes on the task of booking the car hire making this reservation back in October. Then a few weeks back after much discussion lasting days – you know how it is when one of you will not make the decision – we decide to upgrade and get a vehicle that we could use to transport a TV unit + coffee table and other pieces of furniture between 188 and Carrigeen.

So on the morning of our flight on the 27^th, I turn to himself and say right have you got the upgraded documents for the car hire, I’ll put them with the air tickets. Oh sure says he, let me get them. I don’t need to make this into a tense Agatha Christie drama but many minutes later and many comments such as “I definitely did the upgrade booking”, “they must be here somewhere” it turns out that it had not happened. Thankfully Eurocar have a car that we can upgrade to and off we head to 188 and a peaceful evening.

The main task of Wednesday 28^th was for Peter to get my Christmas present. The present is a Powercaddy what every high society gal should not be without. After hours of research and viewing in the UK we’ve narrowed it down to two and both American Golf and McGuirks have them in stock. Both have showrooms about 10 minutes away so off we head on our shopping expedition.

We choose American Golf because that’s on the main road with easy parking while McGuirks is situated within Dundrum shopping centre which is the mecca shopping for South Dublin girls so much so the traffic jams regularly featuring on the news. The sales person spots us immediately and is over to help. The first decision appears to be whether I’d like an 18 or 36 hole battery. After much chat about how it knows how long one takes to play 18 holes I understand the concept of how the batteries work. And also the sales guy now has an understanding of how my mind works and looks at Peter with sympathy.

The choice is between a Powercaddy FW7 at 759Euros or a shop display caddy from Motocaddy with a lot less features at 430Euros. Features on the FW7 include a calorie counter, why? And a feature that tells you how far you’ve hit the ball. To be fair sometimes I can work that out for myself since its only gone a yard. But still the FW7 is looking the favourite particularly after himself says buy the one that will do you years, since you’ll not be buying another for a while. What he really means is you are not getting another from me!

The shop assistant at this stage senses the sale if he can close it out. But we are still humming and hawing about it all. Peter says well I am off to look around while you think about it – in other words can you not make up your mind. So I do what any savvy shopper does and check the McGuirk website to see how much they are selling it for. 629Euros no less!

Wondering back to the till the sharp sales guy is now in for the kill by offering me the 36 hole battery for no extra charge. So I says to him, well that’s not going to swing it for me as I’ll never play two rounds in one day and in one fell swoop dismiss his strategy. To give him is due, he keeps going and say well there could be some movement on the price creating an opening an elephant could walk through and allowing me to say the winning sentence “well McGuirks are selling this very powercaddy for 629Euros” to which he says ok we’ll match that. 3 minutes later the Powercaddy is in the car boot.

And I think how lucky Peter is to be married to someone who negotiates the price on her Christmas present. 

Other Voices weekend in Ballyferriter.

Apologies that this rather long blog is coming two weeks after we did a quick weekend jaunt to Carrigeen but I forgot to write it up – short term memory loss or else the weekend was so fabulous that I did not have time. I am going for the fabulous weekend option. But I did want to record the highlights of the weekend so here goes.

It was our first “proper” weekend to the house and we’d chosen the weekend to coincide with the music festival in Dingle called Other Voices. Other Voices most famous claim to fame was an amazing session in the church by Amy Winehouse. For those of you who may have missed it, click here to see the set:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aatZ9VSF7Mc – there are more videos but this is incredible.

Other Voices itself has been going ten years and is a showcase of the best up and coming music around, not only Irish but worldwide. Over three days, there are normally 3 sessions taking place at any one time, in pubs, churches, museums & the courthouse. The sessions last about 30 minutes and are free to attend. Beginning at 11am each day and ending sometime after 1am, you could pack a lot of music in if you had the stamina – which we do not. An incredibly bad web site tell you a little about the weekend: http://www.othervoices.ie/

Anyway back to our weekend, flying from Stansted to Kerry on a full flight we arrived on time. Himself sprinted across the carpark to the car hire office and within 10 minutes we were zooming through the Kerry countryside although not without having a little “incident” in the carpark... what is it with hired vehicles and airport carparks? Thankfully this time it was not me and so far we think the rental company has not noticed that himself rubbed the alloy wheels alongside the ticket barrier…. Because Dingle is nearly 25 minutes behind GMT – only time wise of course we were able to make the journey all the way in daylight.

A quick at Garvey’s Supermarket – yup we have a loyalty card – to pick up the makings of a meal for Friday night. It is basically the last shop for us before we arrive at the house – so a stop is vital. Although breaking news, we heard a shop might have opened in Ballyferriter..

The house was fine on our arrival and the key task of the evening was to assemble the spare bed as we had a guest arriving about 11pm. AE was attending after an event locally which might have involved a glass of wine and did not want to drive back home so bedding down in Carrigeen made sense.  It did mean that it was about 2am when we all hit the sack = wiped for Saturday night.

Saturday

Up bright and early with a cooked breakfast of local sausages, rashers, black/white pudding and we were set for the day. Hands up who knows what a rasher is… himself is now calling them that.

Despite the late night, Saturday turned out to be a fantastically productive day.  Bookcases were assembled, boxes were unpacked,

shelves were erected and generally a major organisation project was completed. The place was beginning to look ok.

And the new office for ORMA was set up in the most westerly part of Europe but not too close to America.

But that’s enough DIY, what about the music we said. With Roisin O 

playing at 5pm in town we headed in to meet the gang and hear her sing. We’d not see her live before and oh wow what a voice. This was her first gig at Other Voices and the packed marquee at An Chonair pub had a fantastic session with her.

Coming from such a talented music family, her mammy is Mark Black and her aunt is Frances Black and her brother is Danny O’Reilly – no relation sadly – but lead singer with The Coronas she was very comfortable with the audience, played several instruments and belted out the songs brilliantly.

For those of you who want to listen to her, click here http://roisino.com/ 

Sunday

However the night before & the day all caught up with us, so no more music but an early night. The upside of an early night is that one wakes up bright and energised the downside it that it is 6am. But with jobs still to be done we had plenty to keep us occupied.  

 Including the erection of a new house sign, to complement the letterbox.  I am told it’s not quite straight but I didn’t go out to look at is. I’d love to be a fly on the wall when the locals spot the sign. It’s just as well yer man has a surname with a mc in it, sounds Irish enough that locals might assume he is Irish.

With the Other Voices coming to an end there was nothing for it but to hop into town and catch a few more sessions before the Christmas lights were turned on by Walking on Cars. Never heard of them? Shame on you, they are Dingle’s latest band and a lovely bunch of lads – particularly if you are under 15 http://www.walkingoncars.com/

The turning on of the lights was preceded by the most wonderful and sweet lantern parade. Hundreds of children turned up with lanterns of every shape and size made from milk bottle, cola bottles, you name it, it was made into a lantern. Honestly though, we’d not seen so many under 7’s in one small town for many years, as himself said, it’s a long winter, dark nights and not a lot else to do!

The highlight of the lantern parade for us was meeting our neighbour, the ban garda. In case you

don’t know what a ban garda is, that’s the local police in this case a woman and what a wonderful person she is. Really very friendly and chatty, great to have on your side and plays a mean game of golf.

Monday

We were meeting our surveyor to talk through the work we want done on the house. Having established the list of things with him and his mate Derek we headed off for Tralee and the local Currys/PC world – well who wouldn’t. We were in search of a cheap 50cm free standing cooker. What we can now tell you is that it is not possible to buy such an item that gets any okish reviews, never mind good ones. So it looks like there is nothing else for it but to thoroughly clean the current cooker and make do.

It was a fifteen minute hop from Tralee to the airport, an on time flight with Ryanair and before we knew we were back on the Stansted Express hurdling towards London.

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